In 2011, 35% of African-Americans and 33% of Hispanics in the United States lived in poverty.  Also, as Nate mentioned in one of his previous civic issues posts, “1 in 36 Hispanic men ages 18 or older is in prison, 1 in 15 black men ages 18 or older is incarcerated, 1 in 9 black men ages 20-34 is behind bars.  Prison inhabitance is dominated by men, yet the same trend follows with women. Ages 35-39, 1 in 355 white women is in prison. In the same age group, 1 in 297 Hispanic women is incarcerated, while 1 in 100 black women is behind bars.“  With these statistics, it paints a pretty bleak picture for one fourth of America’s population that watch more television than Whites and Asians combined.

While researching for what to post for this week I came across an article written by Carlos Cortes which revolved around how “TV Stereotypes Ignore Dramas of Life.”  And while it goes over stereotypes such as “criminals, crime fighters,” and “hustlers,” I want to focus on the article’s comments towards family sitcom stereotypes; it seems as though the author is describing these shows in a negative light.  Although Cortes outwardly portrays Cosby Show and I Love Lucy in a positive light, his comment that it “[a]ccording to most fictional TV, minority poverty seems to be a thing of the past” becomes almost ironic. It implies that some sort of smack on the hand should be given to these shows for not showing how a large piece of minorities actually live.  But my question is: should these sitcoms really be ashamed of not depicting this real lifestyle?

After all, television is used by many people as an escape from their daily lives and allows them to experience another.  Do these people that live in poor conditions need a reminder of what they live every day?  Would you want to watch a show with the family about a husband and wife struggling to raise their children, worrying about feeding them, and ending with uncertainty as to whether the family will survive?  I think these sitcoms provide hope for these types of families that people have gotten out of worse conditions and made it into a better state than past generations.  It gives the audience something to strive for whether they are knowingly thinking about the show’s effect on them or not.

Now I don’t think that television shouldn’t show what poverty looks like.  After all, how can others help with this issue if they do not have an idea of what poverty looks like. I’m just not sure if family sitcoms should be that medium.

http://www.statehealthfacts.org/comparebar.jsp?ind=14&cat=1

http://www.medialit.org/reading-room/minorities-tv-stereotypes-ignore-dramas-life

http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/newswire/2011/american-video-habits-by-age-gender-and-ethnicity.html

http://www.nij.gov/journals/270/criminal-records-figure2.htm

As far back as the Civil War the United States has been making strides towards racial equality.  Within the last 200 years people of color have the chance to be on equal ground as white people.  This seems to be true in every area except media, and specifically television.  Most shows on American television are predominantly white with some shows with African Americans as the main cast and little to no representation of Hispanics and Asian- Americans on television.  Now one of the first things that might pop up is that this merely reflects the viewing demographic but statistics from the Nielson Cross Platform Report says this is far from the truth.  African- Americans by far watch the most TV with213 hours per month and Asians on the lower end watching 57 hours.  White Americans and Hispanics are in the middle of these two.  The statistics show that what is shown on television does not reflect who is watching TV.

Through this I am trying to say that there is a need for more variety to be showcased and represented on screen.  As someone who is both Black and Asian I feel as though there is a lack of presence, especially on the Asian side, on American television.  Now I don’t think every show needs to have a colored person in them but I would like to turn on the television to a show every once in a while to watch a show that can feel more relatable to me.  Whether it’s an African American show not made by Tyler Perry, the creation of the Asian American sitcom, or if I wish hard enough a mix of both of them it would make me much happier.

There has been improvement over the years for what is airing.  On this article about the racial diversity on TV, the writer composed a chart with the representation of minorities on network TV.  An overall grade was given to each Network based on the number of minorities represented in their shows.  The more minorities on their shows, the better the grade they get.  It’s nice to see that there are more shows such as Modern Family and Scandal that have different ethnicities as the stars but I am still waiting for the day that sitcoms with a predominantly minority cast become a regular thing to see.

If you want to check out the charts mention follow the links here:

http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/american-video-habits-by-age-gender-and-ethnicity/

http://www.tvequals.com/2012/09/17/infographic-racial-diversity-on-tv-fall-2012/

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